N.C. State is back in the Sweet 16, attacking one of the top teams in the nation for 40 minutes and stunning Villanova 71-68 on Saturday night. The Wolfpack went wild as the final horn sounded and danced around the court in celebration.

No, it wasn't quite Jim Valvano's mad dash after the Wolfpack won the 1983 national championship. But the Wolfpack (22-13) have designs on their own big March run. They will move on to Syracuse, New York to play the winner of the Louisville-Northern Iowa game.

N.C. State guards Cat Barber and Desmond Lee shared a long embrace after buzzer. Barber pounded his chest and said, "all heart!"

Lacey led them with 17 points and Barber had 13, each coming with big buckets to hold off a late Villanova charge.

"We came out today with the feeling that everybody expected us to lose to a one seed but we believe in ourselves and that we're good enough to beat anybody in the country and we went down and did it," said BeeJay Anya, who scored the game winner in the opener against LSU.

The Villanova Wildcats take on the North Carolina State Wolfpack during the 2015 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Consol Energy Center on March 21, 2015 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The Wildcats (33-3) saw a 16-game winning streak end and have not reached the second weekend since 2009.

The Wildcats come up empty after storming their way to pair of Big East titles and a 41-point victory in the NCAA Tournament opener.

"I know we have to answer to the fact that we did not get to the second weekend again," coach Jay Wright said. "We have to own that. But it's not going to define us within our program. It's going to define us outside of our program and we accept that."

Darrun Hilliard scored 27 points and gamely rallied the Wildcats in the final minutes. He hit 3-pointers that brought them to within four, within two with 41.1 seconds left and 69-68 with 1.2 seconds left.

Ralston Turner sealed the win with free throws and N.C. State was back in the Sweet 16 for only the third time since 1989 (2012, 2005). They hadn't defeated a top seed since that memorable night in 1983 when they upset Houston.

Yet for the all the Wolfpack did right to keep the `Cats on their heels, they never went on that decisive run that would have ended a comeback threat. Barber lost the ball and N.C. State's ninth turnover led to Josh Hart's three-point play with 3:51 left.

The Wolfpack didn't have to win with authority, though — they just had to win.

Desmond Lee's three-point play stretched the lead back to seven and put them minutes away from the signature win under coach Mark Gottfried. Wins over Duke, North Carolina and Louisville in ACC play let them know they could knock off the elite.

Abu rocked the rim with a dunk for a 40-33 lead and the Wolfpack soon stretched that to 45-33. The Wildcats kept missing from every angle — layups, mid-range jumpers, everything — as their season started slipping away.

The Wildcats played like a tight team all too painfully aware of recent March failures. The Wildcats missed 4 of their first 5 shots from within 2 feet and missed 11 of their first 13 overall.

They shot a season-high 63 percent in the tournament against Lafayette. Against the Wolfpack, they fired `em early in the shot clock, got stuffed at the rim and twice airballed 3-point attempts.

These were the top-seeded Big East champs?

In the first half, the Wildcats missed a whopping 20 of 28 field goals. Hart, the Big East tournament MVP, played just 4 minutes after he was whistled for two fast fouls. Pinkston and Ochefu, both starters, were a combined 0-for-6.